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SPECIAL MESSAGE 



s &©^SS 



IN RELATION TO 



MOB VIOLENCE. 



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Wednesday, February 2, 1870. 



NASHVILLE: 

JONES, PURVIS & CO., PRINTERS TO THE STATE. 




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SPECIAL MESSAGE 



OF THE GOVERNOR, 



T>.^iSr. C. SEISTTER, 



IN RELATION TO 



m:ob violence. 



SUBMITTED FEBRUARY 3, 1870. 




NASHVILLE : 
JONES, PURVIS & CO., PRINTERS TO THE STATE. 

1870. 



MESSA.aE. 



Gentlemen of the ^Senate and House of Representatives : 

It is with profound regret I realize the necessity of directing your 
attention to the alarmingly frequent violence to the peace and dignity 
of the State, in the maltreatment, and even atrocious murders of her 
citizens, by persons generally reported in disguise or unknown. Many 
of the State's citizens have been outraged in their privileges and per- 
sons, by cruel indignities ; not a few slain outright, without charge of 
having, in anywise offended the laws; while others under criminal 
charges, have been forcibly wrested from the custody of the law, and 
their blood deliberately shed by bodies of men without the least 
shadow of authority. That these enormities can be in our midst 
without the perpetrators, in a single instance, being even arrested to 
answer for their lawless and criminal acts, demonstrates the existence 
of organizations on their part, not only dangerous to the individual 
citizen and adverse to the public dignity, but formidable even to the 
public peace and safety. 

While the law lately enacted for suppression of these outrages must 
do honor to the purposes of your honorable body, I trust it will not be 
accepted as an impropriety on my part, to respectfully suggest doubts 
of its sufficiency to reach and remedy the evils aimed at; as not a 
single arrest has yet been made lor the grossest violations of already 
existing laws, although such violations have been frequent; and the 
largest rewards allowed, have been often, if not invariably, offered to 



bring the offtnclcrs to justice, it may bo fairly concluded that they are 
protected by organizations adeiinato, by terrorism, the force of num- 
bers, or other means, to effect security against the ordinary civil pro- 
cess and officers of the law. The public misfortune seems not so 
much a want of law^tt||^fpowerto enforce that we have. 

That, in some instHBIj^iepeaccofficers of a county should be 
under the influence, or even in confederation with the criminals, or 
that the body of its people should be prevented, by terror, from co- 
operation for their suppression, is not more marvelous than that such 
crimes, in the most heinous form, should have been so often repeated 
in this State with such universal impunity. 

In this vievr, I recommend that (if not contrary to our State Con- 
stitution) our statutes be so amended that the Executive shall have 
power, at his discretion, to appoint, for counties where such violations 
of law are committed, and no arrest of the offenders made, special 
officers, with all of the powers of Sheriffs to summon posses, make 
arrests, and do all like things necessary to bring offenders to justice. 
Such officers to be commissioned as peace officers of the State, and 
clothed with all the protection, in exercise of their lawful powers and 
duties, which can be afforded officers of the law ; and also, that the 
Plxecutive be authorizied, by law, to appoint and commission special 
Prosecuting Attorneys in Judicial Circuits where there maybe, in his 
judgment, default on the part of the regular Attorney-General in the 
proper prosecution of such ofFeuders to indictment and conviction in 
the courts — such appointments liy the Governor to ))e confirmed by 
the Senate, if in session. 

It will be observed that my recommendations of remedies for the 
evils indicated, have, thus far, been strictly confined to means within 
civil law ; and as I have never, during my administration of its 
duties, murmured at the disposition of any to diminish the powers of 
the Executive of the State, it will certainly not be considered that I 
now suggest any increase of such powers for other purposes than the 
maintenance of order and suppression of violence. If there is a valid 



constitutional objection to the course suggested, then I recommend 
that your honorable body adopt such measures as will most tend to en- 
able the Executive to secure, in all counties of the State, the most effi- 
cient practicable support to the laws, and protection of society. Surely, 
confession that the governing powers of our State are impotent to 
remedy these heinous outrages cannot be reconciled with the proud 
claim that we enjoy the most perfect form of government yet devised 
by the wisdom and experience of man. Perhaps the distinctive 
genius of our republican institutions is not that we are less, but that 
we are better, governed than those under other systems. Not so much 
that the ruler, with us, is less absolute than even Sultan or Czar, but 
rather that, while these are but human, wearing all the frailties and 
vices of humanity, the other, in the purity of a principle, and un- 
swayed by such imi)erfections, under its majestic title, " The Law, 
without partiality or prejudice," commands what is right, and pro- 
hibits what is wrong, " equally to all." Let every citizen but feel 
that the arm of the law in its power alike reaches the strongest in his 
guilt and protects the weakest in his innocence; that, " in his lying 
down and his going forth," under its invincible shield, he is secure 
against all save the law, and its absolutism can never be felt by any 
as tyranny; but so shall the State have honor abroad, security at home, 
and reverence in the hearts of all its citizens. 

Gentlemen, in contrast to this the evils mentioned are with us. 
Shall we, under our solemn duties, and with the ample powers of pre- 
vention, permit citizens, in the darkness of night, to be snatched 
from their homes by the hand of violence, and subjected to death 
penalties, without even the form of accusation ? Shall the State's 
high prerogative to dispose of the life of her subjects be usurped by 
armed bands, wearing strange disguises, instead of the mantle of her 
law? Even if we could thus prove untrue to ourselves and solemn 
trusts, it would not avail free judgment final, in favor of violence 
and against the citizen's security, the law's enacting, and the dignity 



6 

of the State ; for, lot it l)e considered, in onr political relations and 
obligations, \vc are but component, subject parts of a great, supreme 
government, with purpose noble and fixed, to assure protection, for 
allegiance, to its citizens in each part of its wide domain ; and that 
its power is yet to be fathomed by opposition from abroad or at home. 

D. ^V. C. SENTER. 



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